Folding Poker Table

Checklist for a community Hold'em tournament

Chips - We bought clay chips a few years ago and they are still in fine condition. We have seven racks of green chips (700), four racks of black chips (400), one rack of purple chips (100), one rack of white chips (100). Chip values in our tournaments: green = 25, black = 100, purple = 500 and white = 1000.

Seat assignment cards - we marked up an old deck. 1-10 of spades is table one and seats 1-10, etc.

Running the game

You have to be organized to run an effective home tournament. The setup, sign-up, chip stacks are all done by the players before the game. We also deal with putting all our stuff away so the community room is ready for the next day.

A tournament has a few elements that need to be thought out and easy to implement:

Table and equipment setup.

Sign-in process including the buy-in collection and starting chip stacks.

Blind schedule.

Prize pool.

House rules.

Schedule for tournament night

We start sign-ups at 6:15.

We try to call for the first deal at 6:30, but sometimes run a few minutes late. If so, we take the time off the first blind round time.

Buy-in and starting chips

We have a volunteer to sign in players, collect buy-in fee and hand out chips.

Each player buys in for a set amount, and gets a starting stack of chips worth 2,500. Each starting stack includes: 8 green chips, 8 black chips and 3 purple chips.

Pick a buy-in amount that is comfortable for your group of players. Too high and you squeeze out people; too low and it might not attract serious players. Remember that the prize pool builds through all those buy-ins and re-buys.

Chip color

Value

Buy-in stack

Green

25

8 chips, 200

Black

100

8 chips, 800

Purple

500

3 chips, 1,500

White

1,000

Used to color up

Re-buys and add-ons

We allow re-buys for the first couple of hours:

Unlimited.

Same total chip value, same cost.

Player's current chip stack must be 2,000 or less.

No re-buy during a hand (after first card is dealt).

Blind schedule

We have developed a blind schedule that solves the needs of a community tournament gsme:

Give the players a lot of action in the beginning; low blinds, plenty of chips.

Longer rounds at the beginning, shorter rounds at the end.

Allow for a couple of breaks.

Timed to make sure the evening doesn't run to long.

Introduce antes, towards the end so players can't just sit on chip stacks.

Accelerating blinds towards the end to be sure we can end on schedule (around 10 PM).

If you want a longer game span, then lower the blinds and antes in the last hour.

Blind and break schedule

Time

Minutes

Blinds

Ante

6:30

25

25/50

--

6:55

25

50/100

--

7:20

25

75/100

--

7:45

15

Break color up green

--

8:00

30

100/200

--

8:30

15

200/400

100

8:45

15

300/600

100

9:00 (end re-buys)

15

400/800

200

9:15

15

500/1000

200

9:30

5

Break, color up black

9:35

15

1000/2000

1000

9:50

15

2000/4000

2000

Source

Bonus hands

We pay a bonus for certain premium hands to add a little zip to the evening. The bonus hand must be shown down. If you fold a bonus hand it doesn't count. The hand must play out to a show down. The bonus is paid in tournament chips. Multiple occurrences in a hand get paid (e.g. two different full houses)

1st occurrence of a full house pays 200 in chips.

1st occurrence of quads pays 500 in chips.

Any occurrence of a straight flush pays 1000 in chips.

Any occurrence of a royal flush pays 2500 in chips.

Prize pool

All buy-ins and re-buys accumulate into a prize pool. There is no rake or cut.

General rules and guidelines

To avoid surprises and bad feelings, we publish all of the tournament rules and guidelines and have it available at the sign-in table. It is helpful for newbies.

We include some general guidelines:

Blinds are forced bids. The
player to the left of the dealer must make an opening bet (small blind); the
next player to the left must raise (large blind). Blind bets are made before
cards are dealt. Bidding starts with the third player to the left of
the dealer.

Minimum bet or raise increment is
value of big blind or last raise during the round.

Chips may be revalued (colored
up) to reduce the number of chips in play.

An ante (starting bet for each
player at the table) may be applied at any time during the evening to
accelerate play.

Players assigned to a table; may
be moved from one table to another to balance play. Typically, the player
in cut-off position will move to cut-off at new table.

Play at a table may be
temporarily paused, to balance blind levels between tables.

Blinds move around the table with
each new deal. A player may leave his/her seat, but must leave chips at
the table and ante/blinds are deducted in rotation.

If time runs out (play stopped)
before there is one winner, the remaining players will be ranked based on
the value of their chip stacks.

The prize pool will consist of
the total of buy-in and re-buys (less any costs for refreshments and
supplies).

A good time was had by all...

No question, that it is a great feeling to finish in the money. The neat thing about these tournaments is that every body has a shot. Poker is a great mix of skill and luck. On any given night, anybody can get those magic river cards and knock out a pro.

If you found this article interesting or helpful, please rate it up, share it, leave a comment... thank you

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